KARUAH, Pindimar, Bundabah and North Arm Cove were plunged into a pre-internet Dark Age on Saturday 17 February, when National Broadband Network (NBN) internet services mysteriously failed, with no clear end in sight.

The internet blackout has strangled Karuah’s telecommunications for several days, with all landline and associated wi-fi connections rendered useless.

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Businesses big and small, from the Karuah RSL to the sellers at the Karuah School Markets across the street, found their already-meagre cellular infrastructure jammed into practical inoperability as everyone else swarmed the few bars of mobile service.

“I had to go to Raymond Terrace to get cash because there’s no EFTPOS in Karuah, and also no internet banking,” Karuah Progress Association spokesperson Marion Brown told NOTA.

Using ‘Cash Only’ to pay for a meal at Karuah’s Bridgeview Restaurant came as a jarringly unfamiliar experience for many patrons who have become accustomed to using EFTPOS.

Large groups of Karuah locals reportedly inundated the Raymond Terrace Telstra shop seeking answers on Sunday, while calls directly to Telstra and NBN retailers were met with “Call back in business hours” robo-responses.

“There is an unplanned NBN outage impacting around 1,045 premises (in these areas) due to an equipment fault at the Fibre Access Node in North Arm Cove,” NBNCo Media told NOTA.

“Our technicians have been working throughout the weekend and are currently onsite working to restore services as soon as possible.

“We are keeping our retail partners up-to-date with progress and also encourage people to check the NBN outages page for the latest information.

“We understand unplanned outages can be frustrating and we apologise for the inconvenience.”

The Karuah Progress Association’s Marion Brown said locals are fed up.

“Karuah has been having problems with their phone/internet coverage for a couple of years now and I think we are all fed up – when something like this happens why aren’t telcos accessible to the public, why isn’t information put on the radio/TV?” she asked.

“Visitors get so frustrated.

“Customers at IGA are blaming workers because they can’t use their cards.

“What happens for locals in an emergency and they can’t get petrol to drive to a hospital because their card won’t work?”

By Thomas O’KEEFE